It's a magical mystery tour and a guaranteed summer extender.
It's the Penticton Beer Run – the event that kicks Penticton Beer Week into high gear – and Saturday a record number of entrants showed up to make it the biggest Beer Run ever.
Not only were there more Beer Runners (400) than ever before, but the quality of apparel continued to ramp up.
A couple years ago, a printed t-shirt passed for a decent costume. No more. This year there were human choo-choo trains, dinosaurs, Barbies, Olden Girls, toga party rejects, virtually all the key characters from The Super Mario Brothers Movie, and much, much more.
Plus, just like 2022 and the year before that, the Beer Run, now in its seventh year, continues to influence weather patterns – for the better.
The skies were dark and threatening in the early morning hours, but as the event booted up those clouds began to part.
By the midway mark, the skies had mostly cleared and the temps kept jackets at bay through to the end.
Not bad for mid-October.
For the uninitiated, the Penticton Beer Run, a creation of the folks at Hoodoo Adventures, sees participants run/walk/amble their way through ten kilometers of Penticton roads and paths on a route that takes them to all eight local breweries, where they'll knock back tasters of their finest elixirs.
They'll also stop by roadside setups where out-of-town breweries display and dispense their own wares, and take a quick break at one restaurant (Loki's Garage), where they chomp down on some of the finest French fries in the city.
And new this year, they stopped at the Penticton Library too. Not for a book, but at a table just outside for candy and a water.
This year's event, just like last year's, began at Okanagan Lake Park, where entrants gathered for their bus rides to the starting point at Abandoned Rail Brewing on the KVR Trail.
Before they embarked, they jumped into photo booths supplied by Amuzing Fun Rentals and presumably gave the camera their best fully sober faces.
The first "wave" arrived at Abandoned Rail just after 9 AM, and each succeeding wave approximately 15 minutes after that.
Each group would "taste" the beer, then head south along the KVR toward McCulloch Trestle, where Giant's Head Brewery served up beers from a trailside tent.
The next stop was Bench Market on Vancouver Avenue, where Oliver's Firehall Brewery awaited. Once down the hill, participants moved swiftly along Ellis Street from Cannery Brewing to Hwy 97 Brewery to a tent just outside Hoodoo Adventures, where beers and servers from the Barley Mill awaited.
Next it was Loki's, Slackwater Brewing, then the Hub on Martin, where Summerland's Detonate Brewing had a busy outdoor setup, and then on to the library for candy.
Then it was the long-ish trek to the Cannery Trade Centre and Tin Whistle, before runners doubled back downtown to Neighbourhood Brewing, the adjacent "Dog Park" patio at the still unopened Yellow Dog Brewing, and then on to the finish line, once again at Okanagan Lake Park.
Notable teams included the four-man "Back Wheat Boys," a quartet of energetic local guys dressed like members of a boy band and with voices to match.
At the corner of Fairview and Duncan they sang to passing motorists. At the Neighbourhood Brewing patio, they regaled all in attendance with a hugely impressive version of "I Want it That Way."
Every time we encountered them, and it was quite a few, they brought a smile to our face.
But for pure size and scope, one needed look no further than the squad from Barry Beecroft Fuel Distributors.
They called themselves "Chasing the Gold" and many of them wore huge gold chains and other paraphernalia that's become synonymous with hip-hop.
They numbered 65 people and they came from all over BC.
We grabbed a shot of (almost) the full team at the McCulloch Trestle and they were thrilled to wait 'til we got our act together.
You'll find more info on the Penticton Beer Run, part proceeds of which go to the Youth Outdoor Recreation Society, here.
To see the remainder of the 2023 Penticton Beer Week schedule, head here.
